can you hear me?” I cup her face between my hands. “Gemma, please wake up.”
She remains completely still.
“Aislin!” I yell, panicking. “No. No. No. Please, please, please wake up,” I beg.
When she still doesn’t move, I do the only thing I can think of that might spark life back inside her.
I lean down to kiss her, hoping she’ll feel it, that it’ll bring her back.
GEMMA
When the queen frees the souls, they whisk away back to the world, back to their bodies. Once the last of them has gone, she holds out her hand to me, and I drop the ring into her palm.
She slips the ring onto her finger, and her body begins to transform and take shape. Her skin is mummified like the lost souls, her grey hair veils down her back, her lips are thin, and her eyes are still hollow.
She lets out a sigh as she examines her body. “That’s much better.” She stretches her arms above her head, grinning. “You can go now. I have what I need.”
I nod then run as fast as I can down the tunnel, ready to get back home.
Alana is waiting for me in the archway. “You did it,” she says. “I’m so proud of you, Gemma.”
I tuck Nicholas’s essence under my arm. “Are you going to be okay? I could go back and try to get her to free you, too.”
She swiftly shakes her head. “No, I don’t want you to do that. I need to pay my dues.”
“What’s going to happen to you?”
She doesn’t answer my question, just draws me in for a hug. “You’re an amazing girl, Gemma Lucas. You really are.” She steps back, dabbing her eyes. “Take care of him for me.”
I nod. “I still think—” Before I can say anything else, I’m engulfed in light.
When I open my eyes, I’m back in the grassy field I first entered the Afterlife in, but this time, there aren’t any crows. They sky is clear, the wind still, and for a moment, I feel so at peace.
“It’s about time you showed up,” Nicholas says from behind me, stealing away my moment of peace. “I thought the queen decided to kill you or something.”
I turn to face him, holding onto his essence. “Nope, everything went well.” I hand him the orb. “Your essence.”
He looks very human as he takes the orb from me, tears staining the corners of his eyes. “Thank you,” he says softly.
Two simple words, but coming from him, it means a lot.
“You’re welcome.” I glance around the field before my gaze lands back on him. “Now can you go tell Alex to revive me?”
He shoves the orb into his chest, nods, and then vanishes into thin air.
I sit down in the field and pick at the grass, listening to the wind. I feel different, my mind less burdened, and it feels like my eyes are suddenly open and seeing life for the very first time.
Annabella said humans made easy answers complicated by questioning them, and she was right. The answer of what is going to happen to me has always been right in front of me. There is no loophole, no magic trick. Either I can go to the lake and end everything, or I can run away and let the world die.
It’s that simple, yet I couldn’t fully accept it.
As I shut my eyes and let reality sink in, the wind quickens and sucks me away.
When my eyelids open again, Alex’s lips are on mine. My body is on fire, and I want to close my eyes and let him continue kissing me forever. But electricity surges through me, and he shudders, stumbling back from the zap of static.
His gaze sweeps me over in a mad frenzy. “Tell me you’re okay.”
I run my hands over my arms and legs then sit up. Everything looks right, and I can hear our daughter’s heart beating. “I think I’m good.”
He releases a loud exhale. “I thought you were dead.”
“I was dead.” I rub my eyes then let my hands fall to my lap.
A beat or two skips by as reality catches up with me. I’m here, alive, breathing, and my heart is beating.
“I made it back,” I declare, my muscles relaxing.
“Did you . . . ?” He rakes his fingers through his messy, brown hair. “Did you free the lost souls?”
A soft smile touches my lips. “Go look out the window and see for yourself.”
He strides toward the window and pries the board off, allowing the sunlight to